St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1887-09-04
STILL ON THE DECK.
End of Foolish Talk of the Decadence
Of Minneapolis.
THE WORLD LED IN WHEAT.
C. A. Pillsbury viii Hardly Remove
to Buffalo During This
Crop Year.

ket. Duluth has had nothing to say of
supremacy. j. j. Hill has added no
postscript announcing again that Min
neapolis has seen her best days. Charles
"A. Pillsbury has had no further inter-
views, in Eastern papers, on the subject
of his removal to Buffalo. The figures,
without word of comment, have held
hp Silencing finger and the subject
has been diScretely dropped. If the
future Of Minneapolis were entirely de-
pendent on her flour mills-and the
time has come when even that can be
reasonably doubted-that future seems
year has been wound up only within a
few days, and the actual figures are
still wet with their ink, so astute a
miller and grain buyer as G. A. Pills
bury must have known, from time to
time, just how matters stood. 1t
required no footing of receipts and
shipments to convince him that the
Wheat figures were going higher than
ever, and he must have had fair idea,
all along, of what the mills were doing.
What did he mean then in his talk of
selling out and going to Buffalo? Per-
New York state would reach Minnesota,
but it came very straight. The vehe-
mence of his denial here was Signif-
cant, but the Buffalo papers insist ON
the precise terms of the language he
used there.
Perhaps there is politics in the move.
The death-grip G.. A. Pillsbury has
held on the Republican party of Mime
sofa was rudely knocked off last fall,
and may have something to do with his
numerous Buffalo trips, which are eX-
citing such comment in that city. Mill
ing and grain circles of Buffalo have
construed some of his remarks into
meaning that if half favorable Oppor-
tunity should occurr, he would shake the
dust of Minneapolis from his feet and
locate there. A Buffalo paper recently
said:
sit is reported that Charles A. Pills
bury, the biggest of the Minneapolis
millers, says he is going to put up in
Buffalo the largest Touring mill in the
world. He says he can stop all the
wheat he will need at Buffalo, wont
have to buy except from hand to mouth,
and will be at a better shipping point
than Minneapolis"
This stirred up the Roller Mill and an
investigation showed that a committee
of business men had been appointed, in
the language of George Shaw, ito en-
deavor to induce" Mr.. Pillsbury to To-
cate in Buffalo. S. F. Sherman, a prom
inent elevator man, was chairman of the
committee, and was interviewed by the
Roller Mill, which says:
''He did not think there was authority
for the statement about the largest
fiouring-mill.' President James B.
Stafford, of the Business Mems aSso-
citation. after reading the extract said
Mr.. Pillbury some time ago remarked to
member of the association that if he
could dispose of his Minneapolis milling
plant for so cents on dollar, he
would come to Buffalo and build. When
asked for the name of the gentleman to
whom the remark was addressed, Mr..
Stafford declined to give it, but assured
us that the words attributed to Mr.. Pills
bury were actually uttered. Now we
know as well as Mr.. Pillsbury himself
that his Northwestern plant will never
sell for so cents on dollar, though it
may be worth all of that, and more too.
Perhaps nothing short of the burning
down OF blowing up of his mills will
ever make it expedient for him to trans
fer his activities to this highly favored
point.
In Minneapolis Mr.. Pillsbury has init
mated he said no such thing and had no
such intention, though he took occasion
to deprecate the obstructive policy of
the city toward railroads and to predict
dire things in case radical change did
not come. This is his own affair, but it
is quite a little singular after all.
Haven't the Minneapolis mills made
money? For two or three years 1T has
been the song of the millerS. as well as
the lumbermen, that there was no
money in the business; yet the North
western Miller, the official organ and
mouthpieee Of the millerS, says last year
was generally satisfactory and better
than for several years past. Two years
ago it was announced that the PillSbury
company divided nearly $4,000 surplus
profits among certain of its employees,
on the plan of cooperative participa-
ton i'll the profits of the business. If
the milling business was better, for the
last crop year, why did not the greatest
mill on earth divide at least $50, 900
among its men, instead of whining about
going to Buffalo? "a much more salts
factory state of affairs than has existed
for long time" is the comment of the
Miller, while the figures show larger
wheat movement, greater flour output
and heavier export trade than ever be-
fore. By all means, then, should Mr..
L iilSUufy Sill lOT 0U ctHlS OIL UIlc dollar
and go to Buffalo,
These figures are great things
According to crOakerS Minneapolis is
losing her supremacy as a primary
wheat market and milling point, but
she is doing it by a steady increase in
everything.
In 1884, when the receipts of spring
wheat at this point just cleared 80. OOO.-
600 bushels, there went out great shout
of triumph, and when the flour produc-
ton for the same year reached 100000
barrels and the exports 1889, 900 barrels,
the shout changed to a pean of victory.
Duluth and its train of rivals have
claimed there was "a Shrinkage since
then and the supremacy of Minneapolis
was Oyer:" and when, at the close of
the crop year of 1886, the wheat receipts
still showed 100000 bushels, with a
fraction in the hundred thousands, they
said, l told you so. But this ended sud-
jumped to nearly 100000 bushels.
flour production increased to nearly g.
100000 barrels and flour exports climbed
to over 100000 barrels. The figures
carry their own story.
WHEAT RECEIPTS.
Bushels
1Se4-5. Observation-Disclosures Sc, 112. $40
Ioo0-o. ....... 81 736, $50
loco-f.. 81, 2TS, $50
FLOUR.
% Product. Export
1851. d, 797,340 1,732, 031
1876. $50, 163 1,9S9,552
1856. 5, 465,6S1 2,4OS,590
1867. Observation-Disclosures. g, 333, 437 2,574, 23S
" These figures are approximate, of
M l,11f ioh Al